JAMAICA — KUMINA IN JAMAICA

In Jamaica we explore Kumina, an early Afro-Caribbean religious folk music that paid, and still continues to pay, homage to “the spirits” through communal drumming, chanting and dance.

We begin here because most subsequent genres of Jamaican music can trace its roots back to kumina, and through kumina, back further to Africa. Jamaican Kumina is an ancestor of Nyabinghi music, which itself intertwined with ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall and beyond. This video will start you on your way.